Billy Corgan sues filmmaker

Smashing Pumpkins star seeks $100,000, footage of concerts

July 30, 2008|By Ameet Sachdev, TRIBUNE REPORTER

Billy Corgan, the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, has sued a Gurnee filmmaker, saying that he is unhappy with his work and that the filmmaker refuses to turn over all of the footage he shot unless he receives more money.

Corgan is seeking more than $100,000 in damages from Lester Cohn of Pure DV Productions, according to the suit filed July 22 in Lake County.

The singer said he paid Cohn to videotape some of his concerts and studio sessions from 2003 through at least 2005. Corgan performed as a solo act and with other musicians, according to his attorney, Marc Silver of Barnes & Thornburg.

Corgan planned to use the footage to create works in different media, Silver said.

But Cohn allegedly has provided only a portion of the footage, which Corgan said in the suit "was completely unsatisfactory and not completed in a professional, workmanlike manner in accordance with the standards of a music filmmaker."

Cohn misrepresented his filmmaking expertise and does not deserve the money he was paid, Corgan said in the suit.

The singer also would like the rest of the footage, which he charged Cohn is holding hostage.

"Mr. Corgan is trying to obtain what's rightfully his in a format that was promised," Silver said.